atrabilious: morose, melancholy, or in a like way ill-tempered (from the latin for ‘black bile’)
jonquil: corruption of the bird ‘junco,’ revised to refer to an associated type of narcissus
sough: a rustling or sighing noise; or, to speak or preach whinily; or, a ditch or marsh
mythomane: abbreviation of mythomaniac, similarly graphomane, monomane, etc
imbrangle: also embrangle, to involve in a brangle, a noisy fuss or squabble
afflatus: divine or otherwise miraculous creative inspiration or knowledge
posset: an old cold remedy, spiced milk curdled with beer or wine
bistre: a brownish-yellow pigment derived from wood soot
petroliferous: capable of yielding petroleum, e.g. oil shale
palter: to act or talk carelessly or deceitfully, or to haggle
parclose: a rail or screen dividing parts of a church
cark: care or worry; to carken is to burden
Hauschka – “Paige and Jane”
Youyoume
Delicate yet rich, a piano and cello weave together and create something heart-stopping. This album is short but absolutely exquisite. (serein)
When he arrived at a clearing, he saw a dragon holding a lion by the tail and burning its flanks with its flaming breath. My lord Yvain did not waste time observing this marvel. He asked himself which of the two he would help. Then he determined that he would take the lion’s part, since a venomous and wicked creature deserves only harm: the dragon was venomous, and fire leapt from its mouth because it was so full of wickedness.
Chrétien de Troyes
Álmos Jaschik – Angel above the city, Star Gazers, and Peer Gynt
Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens, 1838)
This classic, while it is by far the poorest book by Dickens I have read, nevertheless somehow endures as one of the author’s most visible and popular works. Perhaps if it were not the first Dickens people were often tasked with reading, they would not develop a dislike towards the man. All its qualities are inferior, and all its flaws deeper, than every other work of his I’ve encountered.
Oliver, to begin with, is a cypher. His only qualities seem to be politeness and naiveté, neither of which seems likely to have emerged naturally in a child raised in the orphanage described. He fails to make any meaningful decision the entire book, acting only as a plot device and nullifying him as something anyone reading should care about — since as a plot device he is more or less immune to harm or influence. The idea of inherent honesty and goodness, always strained in Dickens (and allied to class), reaches the level of nonsensical here.
From the Dodel-Port Atlas (Bibliodyssey)
He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
Houndmouth – “Penitentiary”
From the Hills Beneath the City
This folk-orchestra item impressed me in the car with its resonant chorus harmonies and authentic sounding insertions of “oh mama” and “oh lord.” Not my usual wheelhouse, but a great song is a great song. (insound)
Who can tell how scenes of peace and quietude sink into the minds of pain-worn dwellers in close and noisy places, and carry their own freshness, deep into their jaded hearts! Men who have lived in crowded, pent-up streets, through lives of toil, and who have never wished for change; men, to whom custom has indeed been second nature, and who have come almost to love each brick and stone that formed the narrow boundaries of their daily walks; even they, with the hand of death upon them, have been known to yearn at last for one short glimpse of Nature’s face; and, carried far from the scenes of their old pains and pleasures, have seemed to pass at once into a new state of being. Crawling forth, from day to day, to some green sunny spot, they have had such memories wakened up within them by the sight of the sky, and hill and plain, and glistening water, that a foretaste of heaven itself has soothed their quick decline, and they have sunk into their tombs, as peacefully as the sun whose setting they watched from their lonely chamber window but a few hours before, faded from their dim and feeble sight!
Dickens, Oliver Twist